In a deal announced today, Rigby Private Equity, the private equity arm of Rigby Group Investments, has made a significant investment in specialist, high value-added distributor Wick Hill Group. The deal will allow Wick Hill to grow further in the UK and Germany, as well as giving it a major opportunity to expand into Europe and the Middle East.
Both Wick Hill and Rigby Private Equity stressed that it will be business as usual in the future. Wick Hill will continue with the same staff and management team, led by Ian Kilpatrick, and with the same market-making, high value-add philosophy that has made it a leading VAD in both the UK and DACH regions. Rigby Private Equity is an autonomous, independent entity within Rigby Group Investments.
Ian Kilpatrick, chairman Wick Hill Group, commented: “This deal gives Wick Hill an opportunity for major growth and the chance to take our successful distribution model across Europe and the Middle East. Some of our vendors and potential vendors, as well as some of our customers, have been asking us for an international network, with our value-add model, and we will now be able to deliver that. It’s a logical next step for us and we’re very confident about the opportunities for our staff, vendors and resellers. I am looking forward to what will be a very exciting time for the company.”
Paul Eccleston, head of Rigby Private Equity, said: “Rigby Private Equity has been formed to identify established companies with both a great value proposition and plans for strong growth. Our aim is to invest in these companies, so we can support the acceleration of their growth plans. Wick Hill has been an established leader in high value distribution for more than three decades, with Ian and the team having a great reputation for service, as well as having strong plans for growth. Rigby Private Equity is delighted to be joining the team, to help achieve those plans. This is an exciting time for us, for the Wick Hill team and for Wick Hill’s customers and vendor partners.”
NOTE FOR EDITORS
Recent Wick Hill achievements
Named one of the London Stock Exchange Group’s ‘1000 companies to inspire Britain’. To be included in the list, companies needed to show consistent revenue growth over a minimum of three years, significantly outperforming their industry peers.
Won Woking’s ‘Most successful company of the year’ award, for achieving the best financial performance by an independent company.
Became the first security value added distributor to get the government’s Cyber Essentials accreditation, which demonstrates companies have taken steps to be fundamentally cyber safe.
Won the four major press channel distributor awards in 2014/2015 – CRN’s ‘Security Distributor of the Year’; MicroScope Ace’s ‘Security Distributor of the Year’; Network Computing’s ‘Distributor of the Year’; and Computing Security’s ‘Security Distributor of the Year’
Won numerous best distributor awards from vendor partners.
About Wick Hill
Established in 1976, value added distributor Wick Hill specialises in secure IP infrastructure solutions. The company sources and delivers best-of-breed, easy-to-use solutions through its channel partners, with a portfolio that covers security, performance, access, networking, convergence, storage and hosted solutions.
Wick Hill is particularly focused on providing a wide range of value added support for its channel partners. This includes a strong lead generation and conversion programme, technical and consultancy support for reseller partners in every stage of the sales process, and extensive training.
Wick Hill currently has offices in Woking, Surrey, with sister offices in Hamburg. Wick Hill Group is part of Rigby Private Equity, a subsidiary of Rigby Group Investments, an independent company within Rigby Group plc.
About Rigby Private Equity
Rigby Private Equity is the private equity arm of Rigby Group Investments, owned by the Rigby Group plc. Rigby Private Equity was founded in 2015, with significant funding, to build a portfolio of equity investments in leading, high-growth potential companies in the technology sector.
ENDS
For more information about Wick Hill, please visit www.wickhill.com or www.twitter.com/wickhill or contact Annabelle Brown on 01326 318212, [email protected]. For more information about Rigby Private Equity, please contact Annabelle Brown, public relations consultant on 01326 318212. Email [email protected]
